Today there is a strong demand for a recyclable pallet or method of constructing a pallet from recycled materials. From a functional standpoint, the conventional wooden pallet is difficult to improve upon, however, when damaged or at the end of its life span (usually about five trips) disposal is difficult. Conventional pallets are bulky and take up a lot of landfill space; they cannot be burned easily because contaminants may have become embedded in them. If wooden pallets were made of standard modular sizes, recycling would be easier, but goods are not made with the sizing of pallets in mind. A specific weight range/cost range/durability range of nonstandard pallet size is required for many goods. The market is filled with a great many and great variety of pallets not at the end of their wear span but also not very valuable.
Prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,230,049, 4,390,154, 4,467,728, 4,979,446, 5,076,176 and 5,083,996 to Horne, Ostler, Horne, Winebarger, Clasen and Smith, respectively demonstrate the existence of the problems in the industry. Each of these references is hereby fully incorporated by reference for all disclosed. The invention disclosed herein has the additional goal of recycling used material.
The Ostler patent discloses the use of a two-ply corrugated paperboard pallet deck and in which the use of the plies are arranged so that the corrugation in one ply is perpendicular to the corrugations in the other ply. Winebarger shows a corrugated pallet wherein each component of the pallet is constructed from creased and scored rectangular blanks molded to comprise a solid core of adjacent vertically oriented panels surrounded by an outer covering of parametric horizontally and vertically running panels. Clasen and Smith are both directed to pallet assemblies. The Clasen patent shows a low cost, structurally stable pallet or cargo shipping surface composed of elements which are made of layered and bonded cardboard material. The Smith patent discloses a disposable assembly using cylindrically reinforcing pieces which are engaged with stringer members. None of these references addresses the dual problems of economics and the environment.
Recycling is desirable both ecologically and economically, and in the future may actually be a requirement. Currently, landfills are 48% disposed paper. Of that fraction a substantial percentage is disposed corrugated board. Much corrugated board contains the maximum recycled content for its specific usage. The total number of trips a given volume of kraft paper obtains, even with recycling, is very low. A method of gaining additional use out of a given volume of corrugated between recycling trips will significantly affect the total volume of disposed corrugated that is landfilled.
While there is demand for a highly recyclable pallet, there are serious cost limitations imposed. Increasing the cost paid for pallets does not improve the value of goods shipped upon them. In other words, increasing the cost for pallets directly effects profit. Various systems for continuous manufacturing of pallets out of new corrugated board suffer from a serious limitation. It takes roughly 100 to 150 square feet of corrugated board to make a structural pallet which can withstand 1800 to 2500 pounds dynamic capacity. At $0.05/square foot for raw material costs are in the $5-7 range per pallet. This is equal to the finished cost range for new wooden pallets. Without a substantial cost improvement, corrugated pallets will never catch on.